


The Wolf's Song

by Sendryl



Category: Naruto
Genre: 30 Minute Fic, Angst with Light Happiness at the End, Gen, Hatake Clan-centric, Spirits, Summons & Summoning Meta, We Take Canon Gently by the Throat and YEET, Wolf Pack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-06
Updated: 2020-05-06
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:42:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24030751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sendryl/pseuds/Sendryl
Summary: Kakashi wakes with the wolf’s mournful cry.He’s been waiting for it for years.The haunting song has always lingered in the back of his mind, but it’s been distant and faint until now.He carefully gathers the tooth and the hair from their gentle resting place, takes his father’s blade, and begins his journey.
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi & Hatake Kakashi's Mother, Hatake Kakashi & Hatake Sakumo
Comments: 16
Kudos: 127





	The Wolf's Song

**Author's Note:**

> No one actually dies in this, but it's about Sakumo's death so. Major Character Death tag.
> 
> Enjoy!
> 
> Inspired by [The Wolf Song - Nordic Lullaby - Vargsången](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTmatjyd4KM).
> 
> Edit: Guys! Malakia made me a fic cover!!!! AHHHH! [Malakia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Malakia)  
> Thanks Mala!!!

  
  
  


Kakashi wakes with the wolf’s mournful cry.

He’s been waiting for it for years.

The haunting song has always lingered in the back of his mind, but it’s been distant and faint until now.

He carefully gathers the tooth and the hair from their gentle resting place, takes his father’s blade, and begins his journey.

  
  
  


The song’s been building for the last few weeks. It’s grown louder and clearer every night, ever since the Hokage called him to his office to command him to test yet another genin team. 

This year Kakashi will be testing his sensei’s son.

It’s a cruel thing, he thinks, that his own father’s song has finally sounded now, when he’s called to care for another orphaned son.

  
  
  


Kakashi leaves for the mountains with a tooth and a tuft of hair in his hand, a sword at his back, and a wolf’s cry singing through his soul.

He travels the same paths he had with his father as a child. They had sung together every night on that trip, the wolf’s gentle lullaby urging them on.

Now Kakashi sings alone. The wolf cries regretfully beside him, unseen but clearly heard, their song rising through the trees, an eerily echoing tune.

  
  
  


The farther Kakashi goes, the higher into the mountains he travels, the colder it gets. Unseasonable and strange, snow starts to drift past him. It wisps and swirls around his steady feet as he climbs past the tree line, calling him on just as the wolf’s song does, beckoning him up into the long-abandoned Hatake lands.

There are only a few known places where the spirit world touches the human world, but there are many hidden paths. Secret ways and meeting points of which no one speaks.

The Hatake den is one of those places, shrouded in snow and mist and whispering voices, a bridge between the worlds.

  
  
  


When he finally makes it to the den, nestled between two craggy peaks, he finds it empty and cold. Chakra-heavy air fills his lungs as he approaches the opening. The massive cave stretches back farther than the eye can see, a dark and jagged tunnel leading deep into the mountain, and he knows better than to attempt to enter. Thankfully, the altar at the mouth of the cave is easy to find, clear of any snow or debris.

Kakashi kneels down before it, gathers his chakra, and waits.

The wolves emerge from the depths of the cave, bringing with them the scent of verdant forest and vibrant life, the ozone hint of a lightning strike creeping along their wiry fur. They encircle him entirely, weaving past one another so smoothly that he can never quite get an accurate count.

When he came here as a child he’d kept trying to count them until Sakumo explained he’d never manage it, that each wolf was part of the pack and Kakashi would never be able to separate them against their will.

Now he waits patiently until one wolf separates herself from the pack and steps forward, russet and cream fur and a toothy grin, the same one he remembers from his last trip here. The wolf whose lullaby called him and Sakumo to the den, to send her spirit on.

“Hey, Mom,” Kakashi says with a faint smile, and Roki nudges her way into his arms with a fond huff. He presses his bare face into her fur, feeling the strength and life pulsing through her, the reminder that their clan survives even after death. “I’m here to send Dad home at last.”

She sighs as she pulls back, and Kakashi’s smile wobbles.

“I know you’ve been waiting a long time,” he says, and he’s never quite understood why Sakumo stayed with him this long, especially after--

Roki leans against him suddenly, huffing at her melancholy son as she breaks his train of thought. She nudges him gently, and he stretches out his hand toward the altar.

(She knows why Sakumo stayed with their boy. He regretted his suicide as soon as his spirit woke, just in time to watch their son discover his cooling body. The whole pack had felt the regret screaming through his spirit.

But he couldn’t undo what he’d done. Instead, Sakumo stayed at Kakashi’s side, watching over him as he grew. Unable to help him through his many hardships and sorrows. Only ever present as a faintly-heard wolf’s song 

If only she’d survived Kakashi’s birth. If only Sakumo had held on a little longer.

At least now they can all finally be together again.)

Kakashi places his father's eyetooth and a tuft of his silver hair on the altar, and as he stretches out his father’s sword over them it starts to glow. He channels all his chakra down the blade in a sudden rush, just as his father taught him, and strikes the altar. Lightning surges down from the blade, consuming the altar and blinding him in a brilliant flash. Kakashi can sense it still, even without his sight. Streaks of lightning arc out from the altar and crawling over him and onto his mother beside him and the rest of the pack beyond. The lightning connects them all with a wild roar, and for that brief instant Kakashi can feel his connection to his clan, his pack, and he feels the moment the pack calls his father home.

When his vision clears, a fully-grown wolf, silver and strong, stands in front of him.

“Dad,” Kakashi says, and he means to say so much more, but Sakumo steps forward before he can, pressing into his chest and enveloping his son in the tightest embrace he can manage.

In this place, he doesn’t need words to tell Kakashi how sorry he is. The intent carries, his spirit calls to Kakashi’s own, and when his son breaks down and throws his arms around him he knows he understands.

  
  
  


Kakashi can’t help but wonder what will happen to him when he dies, since there aren't any more Hatake to carry him home.

His spirit is still connected to the pack, and will be until he leaves the den, so they understand even without him speaking his mind.

Sakumo nudges Kakashi's vest pocket, and when he opens it he finds his genin team assignment. Three young faces stare up at him. He doesn't understand what Sakumo is suggesting at first, but then Roki brings out a scroll from below the altar, brand new and brimming with chakra.

It's a summoning scroll for the wolves of the Hatake pack.

Kakashi leaves them with a wolf's song lingering in his heart, nestled beside the hope that he can find someone to sing with him.

  
  
  


It’s a very long time before three new Hatake make the trek into the mountains, carrying a tooth and a tuft of hair and their sensei’s sword, the wolf’s song in their souls, calling them to guide him home.

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, the three Hatake at the end are Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke, all grown up and adopted into the Hatake Clan and summoners signed to the Hatake Wolf Scroll.
> 
> Kakashi's good and old by the time they guide him home, and they summon him and Sakumo and Roki for puppy piles all the time.
> 
> I went into this challenge wanting to write some happy "Sakumo lives and Kakashi has more family" thing.
> 
> That kinda happened??? Sakumo lives on in the pack at least, and Kakashi gets to summon all his relatives and pass on the contract to his students. XD I'm counting it as a happy ending.
> 
> Come say hi on Tumblr! I'm [Sendryl](https://sendryl.tumblr.com) there too. :)


End file.
